um hello everybody welcome to another
YouTube hang out super excited to be
here with you guys on the fifth hang go
to think of the day it’s been a fun
amazing day I’m joined by a new friend
her name is Phoebe she is a former TV
journalist and let me make sure I get
this right multimedia brand journalist
now brain consultant marketing
strategist podcaster extraordinary we’re
doing a two-part series where this week
she’s on my channel I’m interviewing her
next week I’m having her podcast also on
this channel and she’s gonna be
interviewing me so today we’re going to
be talking about how to make you a brand
remarkable and I’m super excited to get
into this talk and Phoebe welcome aboard
hey glad to be here how are you good do
you want to give just a little bit more
context for the people watching about
what you’re all about what you’re doing
how you help people in your daily
practice now absolutely so you know
that’s always a challenge because you
hear things like multimedia brand
journalists and you go what you know
like what is that menu here podcaster
and of course now that audience is
growing but you know as we were talking
just before we started this a lot of
people get confused by those terms so
forget all the terms here’s the basic
essence of what I do I help brands
become remarkable and the way we do that
is we revolutionize communication and
when you say well what does that mean
how do you revolutionize communication
well I mean you’re perfect example
you’re doing that you’re sharing your
communication you’re sharing your skills
your sharing advice and expertise and
you’re bringing that to an audience that
cares and wants it and that’s what I
help do I help tell brand stories I help
craft those brands stories in a
meaningful way but I bring that part
that side that I have the experience
from a TV news station of spending about
almost all shy of two decades there and
seeing the way that works and as we were
talking about news stations our
businesses so their goal is to have
viewers which essentially our consumers
so that’s what every entrepreneur wants
as well cool well yeah the audience
hears entrepreneurs and a lot of people
or starting the business already have
their business and I kind of want to get
the next step branding is not often the
first thing that people look at and a
lot of entrepreneurs don’t do a great
job of branding themselves you know
maybe they weren’t taught at maybe they
haven’t thought about it maybe they’re
just so busy trying to figure out how to
pay the bills what are some of the
things that an entrepreneur needs to
focus on with their branding in order to
try to make it remarkable well I’m going
to take you you know let’s back that up
a little bit so that the first thing you
need to do is you need to understand who
you’re talking to and I think you hear
this a lot you hear a brand persona so
if you compare this to a television
station so for instance I was the
morning anchor from good morning San
Diego right here in San Diego with
10news and we had to know who was
watching us in order to create that
brand in order to know what should go in
that show how you stack your newscast so
just like you how do you stack your
day’s news feed on YouTube you have to
know who you’re talking to so the brand
first starts by understanding what you
want to convey to your audience but who
is your audience if you start with that
and you understand that you know if you
will it’s been called an avatar that
persona then you’re able to reach that
audience with the key questions and
solve for those key problems in the most
influential and the most effective way
so that’s you know it sounds like that’s
so simple but really it’s a lot to get
to know that audience especially because
Evan as you all know when we start out
on YouTube where we start out on
Facebook our audience looks like this
right so it’s hard to get that feedback
at that time and that’s where you dive
in deeper to what your message is so for
me when I came into the marketplace as a
brand journalist I saw that what was
missing is in this mass body of content
marketing there’s this world of all
right let’s let’s get all this
information out let’s be helpful to the
consumer but there wasn’t this mindset
of let’s think like a
journalist but actually you know take
some of the tools that journalists have
because they’re really good storytellers
and they’re good at identifying who the
audiences and what the audience wants
and let’s bring that into the marketing
world and that’s sort of the gap the
place that I love to play in I love us
you’ve got entrepreneurs who are
starting out if we use YouTube as an
example you know they have zero audience
so they’re trying to build up their
audience they’re trying to figure out
that branding maybe don’t even know who
they’re going after yet does it then you
know if you’re thinking about starting
with yourself starting with your story
starting with what you stand for how do
you figure that out to then create a
message like what’s that first story
that I want to tell somebody to also
attract the right people because in a
market like YouTube there’s so many
types of people you know the content i
create is geared towards entrepreneurs
although we have other people who watch
it it’s a reflection of what I’m
interested in and I’ve attracted people
interested in a share so how do people
figure out what their story is to put
out there you talk about storytelling so
like what’s the first story that I need
to tell as a new entrepreneur or someone
is creating a YouTube channel okay so
what you first want to do is again when
you start with the audience you’re going
to look at if you don’t have an audience
at first so let’s just take it from your
brand new business and you’re rolling
outdoors you have an idea in a concept
obviously that idea and concept came
from somewhere so like I said as a brand
journalist I saw okay there’s a lot of
content marketers but not a lot of them
have the skill set that journalists have
so if I created a show my podcast the
brand journalism advantage and I talk to
you about storytelling and I talk to you
about the way that journalists actually
conduct interviews because there’s
certain things certain triggers so for
instance on in the book contagious with
Jonah Berger haven’t had him on my show
but he’s remarkable in and of itself the
book and his philosophy he talks about
things like how to get people
communicating more so a lot of of what
should go into what I’m trying to do is
answer these
asians that people can’t find everywhere
else right because otherwise I become
you know it becomes very diluted so when
you look at starting your first video
the first thing I can say is look at
what is the problem and then answer that
problem in the unique position that you
will solve it so how are you able to
address that problem how are you able to
give them a solution and that’s one of
the first videos i would do even before
you start to do a branding business
video about your overall business has a
lot of people want to do that they want
to do the profile what i’ll call profile
video for lack of a better word I’m so
and so this is what I do this is my life
story if you think about it how is that
really relevant to your audience if I
don’t know you and quite frankly don’t
really care about you so if you first
tell me here’s this problem that I think
you probably share with me that’s why
you’re joining this community and we’re
going to solve this problem and as we go
along you’re going to learn a little bit
more about me in my 315 episodes of the
brand journalism advantage podcast
people learn more about me and about the
different things that I did in the
marketing space for the ABC station out
here and what I’ve done for brands but I
didn’t start out with that I started out
with like I said we need to bring these
journalistic skills into content
marketing because content marketing
alone um has some benefits but without
telling your story in a newsworthy style
it lacks a lot of credibility so the
other thing I would look at is looking
at hashtags trending hashtags what I
call piggyback journalism the stories
that are in the market place right now
so if you’re a local brand of brick and
mortar store and online business look in
the surrounding area for the stories
that are already trending and piggyback
on that maybe your very first youtube
video has to do with something that’s
trending right now
so you can see how that’s not as much
about me me me the business me the brand
it’s about what I have in here my
thought leadership my advice and putting
that out so in the old days before
YouTube before Facebook lodge before
Instagram stories the way we did this
brands did this is they you know typed
out their press release they got their
Wizard of a PR person to send that press
release out to somebody who was sitting
you know in the anchor studio like me
and tried to track me down and help me
down and say I want to you know tell my
viewpoint on this that was the old style
way of it and the brands that were
successful the CEOs and c-suite
executives that got onto the news didn’t
just want to talk about their brand they
identified was something that was
happening in the news trending in the
news piggyback journalism and they gave
their viewpoint on it maybe that didn’t
even have anything to do with their
business but let me give you a little
idea or an example of this because I
know it can be a little bit confusing
but when I give you the example I think
you’ll start to see like oh totally this
happens all the time so let’s say you
have a Nicole I outbreak right that was
a story that happens all the time you
get you know one of these fast-food
chains there’s Nicole I outbreak and
maybe sadly people die or you know
best-case scenario they just get a
little ill that’s on a story that has a
lot of longevity in the news you know if
you watch any local news station even
you know national news they’ll pick it
up and they’ll run with that story so
now if you are a cooking school or you
are a like a certain lahab no place like
that if you know infiltrate into that by
creating your own video that is
following that trend of hey everybody’s
talking about e.coli everybody’s talking
around the water cooler about this you
know place don’t go there to eat or you
might get sick and now you come up with
the story about you know the five ways
to make sure your kitchen countertops on
your kitchen is is perfectly clean and
sanitized that’s a great story that the
media might also be interested in and
that’s where the term piggyback
journalism comes in we can
at the station they might do a big
report at the top of the news in the a
block that talks about the akola
outbreak well in blocks see you know
maybe 30 minutes down into the show we
might run what we call a sidebar report
or a team report and now I’m going over
to the culinary school to talk about the
best ways to keep your kitchen safe so
that’s a great way to infiltrate into it
with a youtube video that doesn’t even
start with your profile story I love it
well while that was great while you’re
dropping some knowledge there people are
enjoying it Jay rises saying he loves
burgers contagious because awesome
Bianca’s same great advice azusa same
excellent uh so just figuring that out
if there’s some hot trend that’s
happening ecoli and i make a video about
how to keep my countertops clean how do
I then am I just counting on the
reporters find you my video am i doing
outreach to try to get on their plate or
what do you suggest to make sure that
video see ya so obviously we all know
those of us who are content creators
like yourself you know that the name of
the game is in the distribution and that
creating the content is one thing but
you can have incredible content that
goes nowhere so like in my days as a TV
news reporter we relied solely on a 10
news at the time was the name of the
game it was the biggest you know
stationed in san diego at that time well
market shares have totally changed so
you can’t rely on that so you have to
get the message out now there’s some key
tips that i’m going to give you that are
directed toward people like me the
journalists right so one way to do that
is something that actually i think is
really important for people who also
appear on interviews as guests like I’m
doing right now so I am an interviewer
for brand journalism advantage but right
now I’m a guest on your show so I went
through and of course I knew who you
were we invited you to come on my
podcast because of who you are but I
also went through and really looked at
your profile who you are and i gotta
tell you um this is lacking for people
interviewees all the time so it is a
huge nono and the people listening all
of you guys listening right now
you may have an opportunity to be on a
show at some point the number one thing
you can do is look at the person’s show
you know understand what they’re all
about and get to know them so how does
that translate to the question you asked
me Evan the way it translates is this if
you get to know a reporter you will know
what that reporters beep is now some of
us are called general assignment
reporter but back in my day I was a
general assignment reporter I was a news
anchor but if you got to know me here in
San Diego any long time sandy Aegon’s
would remember I also was super big on
fitness I was really big on wellness I
was really into being a resource for the
community so any time you came to me
let’s say you were a non-profit you had
a story that was going to better the
world you know kind of like the the
episode that I watched this morning that
you were on with a guy from the UK
talking about you know making the world
a better place essentially that was
actually a tagline for our brand at one
time at the station and so if you know
that about the reporter then you have to
craft a pitch don’t just bang out a
press release that’s you know 400 500
words send that same press release over
and over to every single reporter it’s
going to fail miserably so I’m you know
over at think like a journalist calm i
have several episodes in the podcast
that talk about this but really this
small strategy is just like going to a
party and talking if you met a reporter
there who is a sports reporter you might
not be talking about your environmental
story I mean maybe there’s some
crossover but chances are that’s not the
right reporter for the story because
there be boys so believe it or not I
mean you know I say this and people go
oh yeah sure I know that but then they
sit down they go or they contact their
PR person and guess what happens a
generic press release goes out and guess
where that goes that circular file bit
on the floor so I mean or nowadays in
the digital world that you know goes
quickly to the trash bin so I think if
people get that
go he it’s all about a connection you
know and I’m going to check you out and
then I’m gonna look smarter on your show
because I’ve studied you and because I
know something so one last tip there
with working with reporters if you can
find something like okay I know
someone’s really researched me when they
can go on the web and they go tell me
about that hula picture okay that I go
oh ok so for years I was a professional
hula dancer I danced at the Hanalei here
in San Diego and it was a big part of my
life so if you can find something that’s
relevant to the reporter doesn’t have to
be on topic and you bring that in not
only is it like what I call on my show
we do an icebreaker I’m really pressing
the guest tell me something that you’re
not just sharing with everyone something
that’s interesting to get us into it it
warms up the conversation so you’re
doing the same thing with the reporter
you’re warming up the conversation
you’re inviting them in you’re letting
them know hey I’m not just trying to get
something from you I care about you and
I want to make you look good in front of
your audience because I get that you’re
a business and businesses need people
following them so if i make you look
good by offering this story you’re
probably going to cover it right and one
last tip on that make it easy for them
to identify i figure out the story and
get the story so what do I mean by that
i mean i’m going to use an example if
everybody knows him Richard Branson but
if you go to his blog Ruby and from Ruby
Ruby set up as its own what I’ll call
media property so it’s ok a less fancy
term a blog right but what he’s really
doing is he’s become the media using
that outlet and he talks to his audience
murder we talked at the start of the
show that avatar he knows that person
well and it’s really for the airlines so
his airlines that he operates so what he
does is from there he takes you if you
scroll down and you’re a journalist like
myself I’m going to scroll down I’m
going to dig a little deeper and I can
easily get to his media outlet that is a
brand newsroom now the majority of
entrepreneurs and I don’t care how small
you are won’t have this but should have
it they should have a brand newsroom
with their media kit that tells a little
bit about them where I can access your
headshot where I can access your logo
where I can access your videos to
download and you need to tell me is it
okay for me to use this stuff because if
I want to use it and I’m on a deadline
I’m not going to go track you down I’m
going to just say oh I can use this or
if I can’t if I can’t find it I’m gonna
say forget about it I’m going somewhere
else because there’s someone else very
easy for me to feature on CNN or in the
New York Times so make yourself
accessible have all that there and it’s
sort of that mindset of you know back in
the old days when we used to say you
know if you want to be something dress
the part so no be what you want to be
even if you feel like I’m not that huge
brand live like you are that huge friend
now and believe right along vertical
yeah totally cool that’s a lot of value
in a few short minutes there we’ve got a
live audience we got people asking
questions who want to give a shout out
to some of them uh she rises asking I
guess because you talked about video
content you talked about storytelling
he’s asking is there a difference
between video and visual storytelling if
so what and how important is it is there
a sec okay I’m sorry I missed that last
part is there a difference between video
is there a difference between video and
visual storytelling okay so on when I
called myself a multimedia brand
journalist I meant that I trans that I
go across all platforms so um when we’re
talking about storytelling you can have
visual which I would say is like you
know your photo journalism and
photojournalism can be incredibly
powerful so think about Instagram one of
the best tips i actually got you know um
from one of my guests on on the brand
journalism advantage podcast is to make
their feed in instagram tell a story all
the way through
as opposed to a lot of us just jump on
Instagram or me we might have a strategy
but what we do is we kind of just post a
bunch of different stuff but if you
think about it there is a way to
structure that so that it has this story
all the way through so I would call that
visual storytelling do you remember when
you would be driving on a long path like
a road and you would see these these ads
they would be billboards right and it
was um was a barbasol I believe that the
shaving cream right i mean i’m dating
myself now but you would see these ads
and they would kind of tell a story one
after the other that’s visual
storytelling so what I love about video
storytelling is video story telling has
the ability to do what we’re doing here
if I were just doing print or I were
putting a blog post up and I were you
know I was putting photos you get one
aspect but one of the key things about
TV and I’ve worked in everything from
you know when I first started my
journalism career was 19 and I was
working in radio then I went to the
magazine industry and my real goal is I
want to be on TV and why I want to be on
TV is all of the elements come together
you know you can feel my passion you can
you see the expression on my face and
you know all of that is so important so
a video storytelling one of the key
ingredients for a brand to be successful
really important is to make use of what
we call in the TV news industry natural
sound or ambience sound so there is
always that space for it but a lot of
people don’t know how to use this you
know they’re afraid of dead air if you
will well I’m not talking about the
dinner i’m talking about that moment
where there’s that beat of let me give
you an example and then i will tell you
you know at the end of this where you
can go to see an example of it but but i
shot a video very quick video for a
class I teach on iphone storytelling and
what we talked about was how to use
these different angles using five shots
you can shoot a video just five shots so
that means you can do you know the head
and shoulders which you see on the new
you can do an over-the-shoulder shot
looking over my shoulder at what I’m
doing down here if I’m you know messing
with my iPhone or something like that in
this case it was about cigar rolling and
and while I do have another brand called
the plant-based diet calm and I promote
healthy living this just fit perfectly
nothing against the guards or anything
like that but it fit perfectly because
if you’ve ever watched how they do this
there’s a series of things that they’re
doing to roll the cigar right and get it
ready and I had no idea but it made the
coolest video so I was in downtown San
Diego I shot it all with my iPhone I
shot it in maybe two minutes time I put
it to music and now that can make a
great little Instagram video for that
particular brand that particular
business because it’s just a cool thing
but when I was talking about the nat
sound there’s one shot in there we’re
with the UM with the cigar after you get
to a certain point you click off the end
of it right and it goes like that that’s
a little piece of nat sound and you go
do i need that most of the time people
won’t recognize it they won’t hear it
they’re not attuned to it and they won’t
use it but using that in a shot is what
changes just basic videos to a level of
storytelling and cinematography so a tip
on that if you want to learn this kind
of thing watch trailers movie trailers
are famous for doing this because
they’ll put in little bits why are they
doing it they want to tell you a quick
story and they want to engage you so
that you’ll watch the movie and go to it
so if you follow the lead of what
Hollywood does and you then you also
watch news report where the news
reporters are are creative and doing
this because not all of them are but the
ones that are really good tell stories
like that and they don’t just tell it
with their voice or the interviewee they
tell it with natural sound that exact I
make sense yeah well yeah Jerry’s asked
the question is he’s in the chat not you
saying a green audio is so important I’m
in some particular movie trailers tell
great stories so you guys are on the
same page 2 it was really good another
question coming from hey Zeus
what is the best way to make remarkable
supplement brand and I think he added
that he’s doing protein shakes oh love
it okay I’m just trying to understand
what supplements Oh awesome okay honey
mica so this is a good like tangible
example right so see selling protein
shakes yes yes no we have grand markable
yeah okay so I’ve got three tips for you
on this because this address is that how
you make your brand remarkable the first
I’m going to go through quickly and then
we’ll we’ll backpedal into them first
you’re going to put the consumer first
second you’re going to tell stories that
matter to that audience and then you’re
going to build that community with all
of this and the culture so how we
backpedal into this without knowing what
your supplement is and by the way we
should connect offline after this
because that’s what the plant-based diet
does is it looks at supplements and it
looks at all that healthy living stuff
so I love love love that but in doing
that the first thing you can do is start
with your blog start with your videos
and start with your growing your email
database by producing content that
matters so when I was on ten News I did
a segment called keep fit with Phoebe
this was a fitness segment that I hosted
for a decade and initially quite frankly
we started the segment because this is
in the days when CNN was just kicking
off and we had started this 24-hour news
channel well guess what local news
through not 24 hours to import the news
so what did we do we did a five-minute a
whopping five minute segment anybody
who’s familiar with TV news knows that
five minutes is a long ass time you know
that I mean that’s like huge and TV news
but we did it because we had to fill you
know two hours of blocks of news at a
time so in doing that I connected with
the audience and I started to look at
what’s important what I found was the
fitness segment that was meaningful to
the audience was to do exercises that
you could do anywhere in the world
meaning you could be on a plane you
could be here at your desk you could do
Pilates you could do yoga these
stretches so I focused on that so
I would start with taking my supplement
and looking at who it best serves and
then crafting videos for the people who
are going to use it now what I would not
do at first is I would not talk about
its benefits and features so so what do
I mean by that I mean on let me use an
example the ipad when the ipad came out
that you know then some of the newest
versions Apple did an amazing remarkable
commercial that didn’t talk to you at
all about how to use the the ipad and
what it can actually do for you as far
as its storage and things like that they
showed the ipad being used in the most
creative settings sometimes i think they
even used some stock footage and then
other times they used you know original
footage so in doing that they’re showing
you and letting you feel it so we call
this experiential marketing when you’re
doing experiential marketing you are
bringing me the consumer into it so
you’re showing me what is this
supplement going to do for me um you can
tune into I have a youtube channel
called the plant-based diet you can
check out some of the stuff there I’ll
interview vegans vegetarians I’ll do
videos like this myself and it will
showcase how you can be part of this
community and what you can get from it
so that’s what I would do in building a
supplement brand and then I would
structure all of my Instagram posts and
photos I would take clips from the video
you can pull those actual clips from the
video if you want or you can shoot them
separately or you can do behind the
scenes people love behind the scenes and
you can source that but the main thing
you’re trying to do is get them to
experience the difference it’s going to
make so if you have somebody for example
i interviewed michael dorn if you guys
remember michael dorn from you know Star
Trek The Next Generation he’s a hoot and
I mean just I mean a total loved and I
was awesome and when I had him on he was
so spectacular because he just talked in
you know plain terms about hey I had
prostate cancer I went to the doctor and
the doctor said people who
need a mostly plant-based diet or an all
plant-based diet are usually a lot
healthier and when you shared that that
carried so much more weight than any you
know post or video that I could do that
would just go through in bullet points
or in plain terms like hey the
plant-based diet is good for you because
of XYZ right so it’s that experience he
brought into it and there again because
it was a video it was really emotional
because you know he’s a cool guy and we
could go back in time and look at what
he’s done and tell a little bit of
backstory and make it all relevant so
okay I answer that question I love it
yeah and we’re getting some some Worf
shoutouts yeah totally he’s awesome yeah
really I mean it’s crazy how quickly
half an hour goes I know we need to wrap
up there’s still a bunch of people have
questions for people to learn more about
you connect with you see what you’re up
to where were you hanging out where’s
the best place to get in touch okay so
um i would tell you just google my name
but I know that’s really hard to spell
so just remember think like a journalist
com that’s a hub I have several brands
like I’ve mentioned the plant-based diet
calm from that place you can find me all
over I’ve got videos and I’m all over
social media and I love love to do
hangouts and a chat with people so I
want to be a resource for you I love it
well thank you for the time thank you
guys so much for watching we’ll see you
again next week Phoebe I am on the other
side this time but not big you guys
continue to believe or whatever your one
word is and we’ll see you soon bye bye
think like a journalist
YouTube hang out super excited to be
here with you guys on the fifth hang go
to think of the day it’s been a fun
amazing day I’m joined by a new friend
her name is Phoebe she is a former TV
journalist and let me make sure I get
this right multimedia brand journalist
now brain consultant marketing
strategist podcaster extraordinary we’re
doing a two-part series where this week
she’s on my channel I’m interviewing her
next week I’m having her podcast also on
this channel and she’s gonna be
interviewing me so today we’re going to
be talking about how to make you a brand
remarkable and I’m super excited to get
into this talk and Phoebe welcome aboard
hey glad to be here how are you good do
you want to give just a little bit more
context for the people watching about
what you’re all about what you’re doing
how you help people in your daily
practice now absolutely so you know
that’s always a challenge because you
hear things like multimedia brand
journalists and you go what you know
like what is that menu here podcaster
and of course now that audience is
growing but you know as we were talking
just before we started this a lot of
people get confused by those terms so
forget all the terms here’s the basic
essence of what I do I help brands
become remarkable and the way we do that
is we revolutionize communication and
when you say well what does that mean
how do you revolutionize communication
well I mean you’re perfect example
you’re doing that you’re sharing your
communication you’re sharing your skills
your sharing advice and expertise and
you’re bringing that to an audience that
cares and wants it and that’s what I
help do I help tell brand stories I help
craft those brands stories in a
meaningful way but I bring that part
that side that I have the experience
from a TV news station of spending about
almost all shy of two decades there and
seeing the way that works and as we were
talking about news stations our
businesses so their goal is to have
viewers which essentially our consumers
so that’s what every entrepreneur wants
as well cool well yeah the audience
hears entrepreneurs and a lot of people
or starting the business already have
their business and I kind of want to get
the next step branding is not often the
first thing that people look at and a
lot of entrepreneurs don’t do a great
job of branding themselves you know
maybe they weren’t taught at maybe they
haven’t thought about it maybe they’re
just so busy trying to figure out how to
pay the bills what are some of the
things that an entrepreneur needs to
focus on with their branding in order to
try to make it remarkable well I’m going
to take you you know let’s back that up
a little bit so that the first thing you
need to do is you need to understand who
you’re talking to and I think you hear
this a lot you hear a brand persona so
if you compare this to a television
station so for instance I was the
morning anchor from good morning San
Diego right here in San Diego with
10news and we had to know who was
watching us in order to create that
brand in order to know what should go in
that show how you stack your newscast so
just like you how do you stack your
day’s news feed on YouTube you have to
know who you’re talking to so the brand
first starts by understanding what you
want to convey to your audience but who
is your audience if you start with that
and you understand that you know if you
will it’s been called an avatar that
persona then you’re able to reach that
audience with the key questions and
solve for those key problems in the most
influential and the most effective way
so that’s you know it sounds like that’s
so simple but really it’s a lot to get
to know that audience especially because
Evan as you all know when we start out
on YouTube where we start out on
Facebook our audience looks like this
right so it’s hard to get that feedback
at that time and that’s where you dive
in deeper to what your message is so for
me when I came into the marketplace as a
brand journalist I saw that what was
missing is in this mass body of content
marketing there’s this world of all
right let’s let’s get all this
information out let’s be helpful to the
consumer but there wasn’t this mindset
of let’s think like a
journalist but actually you know take
some of the tools that journalists have
because they’re really good storytellers
and they’re good at identifying who the
audiences and what the audience wants
and let’s bring that into the marketing
world and that’s sort of the gap the
place that I love to play in I love us
you’ve got entrepreneurs who are
starting out if we use YouTube as an
example you know they have zero audience
so they’re trying to build up their
audience they’re trying to figure out
that branding maybe don’t even know who
they’re going after yet does it then you
know if you’re thinking about starting
with yourself starting with your story
starting with what you stand for how do
you figure that out to then create a
message like what’s that first story
that I want to tell somebody to also
attract the right people because in a
market like YouTube there’s so many
types of people you know the content i
create is geared towards entrepreneurs
although we have other people who watch
it it’s a reflection of what I’m
interested in and I’ve attracted people
interested in a share so how do people
figure out what their story is to put
out there you talk about storytelling so
like what’s the first story that I need
to tell as a new entrepreneur or someone
is creating a YouTube channel okay so
what you first want to do is again when
you start with the audience you’re going
to look at if you don’t have an audience
at first so let’s just take it from your
brand new business and you’re rolling
outdoors you have an idea in a concept
obviously that idea and concept came
from somewhere so like I said as a brand
journalist I saw okay there’s a lot of
content marketers but not a lot of them
have the skill set that journalists have
so if I created a show my podcast the
brand journalism advantage and I talk to
you about storytelling and I talk to you
about the way that journalists actually
conduct interviews because there’s
certain things certain triggers so for
instance on in the book contagious with
Jonah Berger haven’t had him on my show
but he’s remarkable in and of itself the
book and his philosophy he talks about
things like how to get people
communicating more so a lot of of what
should go into what I’m trying to do is
answer these
asians that people can’t find everywhere
else right because otherwise I become
you know it becomes very diluted so when
you look at starting your first video
the first thing I can say is look at
what is the problem and then answer that
problem in the unique position that you
will solve it so how are you able to
address that problem how are you able to
give them a solution and that’s one of
the first videos i would do even before
you start to do a branding business
video about your overall business has a
lot of people want to do that they want
to do the profile what i’ll call profile
video for lack of a better word I’m so
and so this is what I do this is my life
story if you think about it how is that
really relevant to your audience if I
don’t know you and quite frankly don’t
really care about you so if you first
tell me here’s this problem that I think
you probably share with me that’s why
you’re joining this community and we’re
going to solve this problem and as we go
along you’re going to learn a little bit
more about me in my 315 episodes of the
brand journalism advantage podcast
people learn more about me and about the
different things that I did in the
marketing space for the ABC station out
here and what I’ve done for brands but I
didn’t start out with that I started out
with like I said we need to bring these
journalistic skills into content
marketing because content marketing
alone um has some benefits but without
telling your story in a newsworthy style
it lacks a lot of credibility so the
other thing I would look at is looking
at hashtags trending hashtags what I
call piggyback journalism the stories
that are in the market place right now
so if you’re a local brand of brick and
mortar store and online business look in
the surrounding area for the stories
that are already trending and piggyback
on that maybe your very first youtube
video has to do with something that’s
trending right now
so you can see how that’s not as much
about me me me the business me the brand
it’s about what I have in here my
thought leadership my advice and putting
that out so in the old days before
YouTube before Facebook lodge before
Instagram stories the way we did this
brands did this is they you know typed
out their press release they got their
Wizard of a PR person to send that press
release out to somebody who was sitting
you know in the anchor studio like me
and tried to track me down and help me
down and say I want to you know tell my
viewpoint on this that was the old style
way of it and the brands that were
successful the CEOs and c-suite
executives that got onto the news didn’t
just want to talk about their brand they
identified was something that was
happening in the news trending in the
news piggyback journalism and they gave
their viewpoint on it maybe that didn’t
even have anything to do with their
business but let me give you a little
idea or an example of this because I
know it can be a little bit confusing
but when I give you the example I think
you’ll start to see like oh totally this
happens all the time so let’s say you
have a Nicole I outbreak right that was
a story that happens all the time you
get you know one of these fast-food
chains there’s Nicole I outbreak and
maybe sadly people die or you know
best-case scenario they just get a
little ill that’s on a story that has a
lot of longevity in the news you know if
you watch any local news station even
you know national news they’ll pick it
up and they’ll run with that story so
now if you are a cooking school or you
are a like a certain lahab no place like
that if you know infiltrate into that by
creating your own video that is
following that trend of hey everybody’s
talking about e.coli everybody’s talking
around the water cooler about this you
know place don’t go there to eat or you
might get sick and now you come up with
the story about you know the five ways
to make sure your kitchen countertops on
your kitchen is is perfectly clean and
sanitized that’s a great story that the
media might also be interested in and
that’s where the term piggyback
journalism comes in we can
at the station they might do a big
report at the top of the news in the a
block that talks about the akola
outbreak well in blocks see you know
maybe 30 minutes down into the show we
might run what we call a sidebar report
or a team report and now I’m going over
to the culinary school to talk about the
best ways to keep your kitchen safe so
that’s a great way to infiltrate into it
with a youtube video that doesn’t even
start with your profile story I love it
well while that was great while you’re
dropping some knowledge there people are
enjoying it Jay rises saying he loves
burgers contagious because awesome
Bianca’s same great advice azusa same
excellent uh so just figuring that out
if there’s some hot trend that’s
happening ecoli and i make a video about
how to keep my countertops clean how do
I then am I just counting on the
reporters find you my video am i doing
outreach to try to get on their plate or
what do you suggest to make sure that
video see ya so obviously we all know
those of us who are content creators
like yourself you know that the name of
the game is in the distribution and that
creating the content is one thing but
you can have incredible content that
goes nowhere so like in my days as a TV
news reporter we relied solely on a 10
news at the time was the name of the
game it was the biggest you know
stationed in san diego at that time well
market shares have totally changed so
you can’t rely on that so you have to
get the message out now there’s some key
tips that i’m going to give you that are
directed toward people like me the
journalists right so one way to do that
is something that actually i think is
really important for people who also
appear on interviews as guests like I’m
doing right now so I am an interviewer
for brand journalism advantage but right
now I’m a guest on your show so I went
through and of course I knew who you
were we invited you to come on my
podcast because of who you are but I
also went through and really looked at
your profile who you are and i gotta
tell you um this is lacking for people
interviewees all the time so it is a
huge nono and the people listening all
of you guys listening right now
you may have an opportunity to be on a
show at some point the number one thing
you can do is look at the person’s show
you know understand what they’re all
about and get to know them so how does
that translate to the question you asked
me Evan the way it translates is this if
you get to know a reporter you will know
what that reporters beep is now some of
us are called general assignment
reporter but back in my day I was a
general assignment reporter I was a news
anchor but if you got to know me here in
San Diego any long time sandy Aegon’s
would remember I also was super big on
fitness I was really big on wellness I
was really into being a resource for the
community so any time you came to me
let’s say you were a non-profit you had
a story that was going to better the
world you know kind of like the the
episode that I watched this morning that
you were on with a guy from the UK
talking about you know making the world
a better place essentially that was
actually a tagline for our brand at one
time at the station and so if you know
that about the reporter then you have to
craft a pitch don’t just bang out a
press release that’s you know 400 500
words send that same press release over
and over to every single reporter it’s
going to fail miserably so I’m you know
over at think like a journalist calm i
have several episodes in the podcast
that talk about this but really this
small strategy is just like going to a
party and talking if you met a reporter
there who is a sports reporter you might
not be talking about your environmental
story I mean maybe there’s some
crossover but chances are that’s not the
right reporter for the story because
there be boys so believe it or not I
mean you know I say this and people go
oh yeah sure I know that but then they
sit down they go or they contact their
PR person and guess what happens a
generic press release goes out and guess
where that goes that circular file bit
on the floor so I mean or nowadays in
the digital world that you know goes
quickly to the trash bin so I think if
people get that
go he it’s all about a connection you
know and I’m going to check you out and
then I’m gonna look smarter on your show
because I’ve studied you and because I
know something so one last tip there
with working with reporters if you can
find something like okay I know
someone’s really researched me when they
can go on the web and they go tell me
about that hula picture okay that I go
oh ok so for years I was a professional
hula dancer I danced at the Hanalei here
in San Diego and it was a big part of my
life so if you can find something that’s
relevant to the reporter doesn’t have to
be on topic and you bring that in not
only is it like what I call on my show
we do an icebreaker I’m really pressing
the guest tell me something that you’re
not just sharing with everyone something
that’s interesting to get us into it it
warms up the conversation so you’re
doing the same thing with the reporter
you’re warming up the conversation
you’re inviting them in you’re letting
them know hey I’m not just trying to get
something from you I care about you and
I want to make you look good in front of
your audience because I get that you’re
a business and businesses need people
following them so if i make you look
good by offering this story you’re
probably going to cover it right and one
last tip on that make it easy for them
to identify i figure out the story and
get the story so what do I mean by that
i mean i’m going to use an example if
everybody knows him Richard Branson but
if you go to his blog Ruby and from Ruby
Ruby set up as its own what I’ll call
media property so it’s ok a less fancy
term a blog right but what he’s really
doing is he’s become the media using
that outlet and he talks to his audience
murder we talked at the start of the
show that avatar he knows that person
well and it’s really for the airlines so
his airlines that he operates so what he
does is from there he takes you if you
scroll down and you’re a journalist like
myself I’m going to scroll down I’m
going to dig a little deeper and I can
easily get to his media outlet that is a
brand newsroom now the majority of
entrepreneurs and I don’t care how small
you are won’t have this but should have
it they should have a brand newsroom
with their media kit that tells a little
bit about them where I can access your
headshot where I can access your logo
where I can access your videos to
download and you need to tell me is it
okay for me to use this stuff because if
I want to use it and I’m on a deadline
I’m not going to go track you down I’m
going to just say oh I can use this or
if I can’t if I can’t find it I’m gonna
say forget about it I’m going somewhere
else because there’s someone else very
easy for me to feature on CNN or in the
New York Times so make yourself
accessible have all that there and it’s
sort of that mindset of you know back in
the old days when we used to say you
know if you want to be something dress
the part so no be what you want to be
even if you feel like I’m not that huge
brand live like you are that huge friend
now and believe right along vertical
yeah totally cool that’s a lot of value
in a few short minutes there we’ve got a
live audience we got people asking
questions who want to give a shout out
to some of them uh she rises asking I
guess because you talked about video
content you talked about storytelling
he’s asking is there a difference
between video and visual storytelling if
so what and how important is it is there
a sec okay I’m sorry I missed that last
part is there a difference between video
is there a difference between video and
visual storytelling okay so on when I
called myself a multimedia brand
journalist I meant that I trans that I
go across all platforms so um when we’re
talking about storytelling you can have
visual which I would say is like you
know your photo journalism and
photojournalism can be incredibly
powerful so think about Instagram one of
the best tips i actually got you know um
from one of my guests on on the brand
journalism advantage podcast is to make
their feed in instagram tell a story all
the way through
as opposed to a lot of us just jump on
Instagram or me we might have a strategy
but what we do is we kind of just post a
bunch of different stuff but if you
think about it there is a way to
structure that so that it has this story
all the way through so I would call that
visual storytelling do you remember when
you would be driving on a long path like
a road and you would see these these ads
they would be billboards right and it
was um was a barbasol I believe that the
shaving cream right i mean i’m dating
myself now but you would see these ads
and they would kind of tell a story one
after the other that’s visual
storytelling so what I love about video
storytelling is video story telling has
the ability to do what we’re doing here
if I were just doing print or I were
putting a blog post up and I were you
know I was putting photos you get one
aspect but one of the key things about
TV and I’ve worked in everything from
you know when I first started my
journalism career was 19 and I was
working in radio then I went to the
magazine industry and my real goal is I
want to be on TV and why I want to be on
TV is all of the elements come together
you know you can feel my passion you can
you see the expression on my face and
you know all of that is so important so
a video storytelling one of the key
ingredients for a brand to be successful
really important is to make use of what
we call in the TV news industry natural
sound or ambience sound so there is
always that space for it but a lot of
people don’t know how to use this you
know they’re afraid of dead air if you
will well I’m not talking about the
dinner i’m talking about that moment
where there’s that beat of let me give
you an example and then i will tell you
you know at the end of this where you
can go to see an example of it but but i
shot a video very quick video for a
class I teach on iphone storytelling and
what we talked about was how to use
these different angles using five shots
you can shoot a video just five shots so
that means you can do you know the head
and shoulders which you see on the new
you can do an over-the-shoulder shot
looking over my shoulder at what I’m
doing down here if I’m you know messing
with my iPhone or something like that in
this case it was about cigar rolling and
and while I do have another brand called
the plant-based diet calm and I promote
healthy living this just fit perfectly
nothing against the guards or anything
like that but it fit perfectly because
if you’ve ever watched how they do this
there’s a series of things that they’re
doing to roll the cigar right and get it
ready and I had no idea but it made the
coolest video so I was in downtown San
Diego I shot it all with my iPhone I
shot it in maybe two minutes time I put
it to music and now that can make a
great little Instagram video for that
particular brand that particular
business because it’s just a cool thing
but when I was talking about the nat
sound there’s one shot in there we’re
with the UM with the cigar after you get
to a certain point you click off the end
of it right and it goes like that that’s
a little piece of nat sound and you go
do i need that most of the time people
won’t recognize it they won’t hear it
they’re not attuned to it and they won’t
use it but using that in a shot is what
changes just basic videos to a level of
storytelling and cinematography so a tip
on that if you want to learn this kind
of thing watch trailers movie trailers
are famous for doing this because
they’ll put in little bits why are they
doing it they want to tell you a quick
story and they want to engage you so
that you’ll watch the movie and go to it
so if you follow the lead of what
Hollywood does and you then you also
watch news report where the news
reporters are are creative and doing
this because not all of them are but the
ones that are really good tell stories
like that and they don’t just tell it
with their voice or the interviewee they
tell it with natural sound that exact I
make sense yeah well yeah Jerry’s asked
the question is he’s in the chat not you
saying a green audio is so important I’m
in some particular movie trailers tell
great stories so you guys are on the
same page 2 it was really good another
question coming from hey Zeus
what is the best way to make remarkable
supplement brand and I think he added
that he’s doing protein shakes oh love
it okay I’m just trying to understand
what supplements Oh awesome okay honey
mica so this is a good like tangible
example right so see selling protein
shakes yes yes no we have grand markable
yeah okay so I’ve got three tips for you
on this because this address is that how
you make your brand remarkable the first
I’m going to go through quickly and then
we’ll we’ll backpedal into them first
you’re going to put the consumer first
second you’re going to tell stories that
matter to that audience and then you’re
going to build that community with all
of this and the culture so how we
backpedal into this without knowing what
your supplement is and by the way we
should connect offline after this
because that’s what the plant-based diet
does is it looks at supplements and it
looks at all that healthy living stuff
so I love love love that but in doing
that the first thing you can do is start
with your blog start with your videos
and start with your growing your email
database by producing content that
matters so when I was on ten News I did
a segment called keep fit with Phoebe
this was a fitness segment that I hosted
for a decade and initially quite frankly
we started the segment because this is
in the days when CNN was just kicking
off and we had started this 24-hour news
channel well guess what local news
through not 24 hours to import the news
so what did we do we did a five-minute a
whopping five minute segment anybody
who’s familiar with TV news knows that
five minutes is a long ass time you know
that I mean that’s like huge and TV news
but we did it because we had to fill you
know two hours of blocks of news at a
time so in doing that I connected with
the audience and I started to look at
what’s important what I found was the
fitness segment that was meaningful to
the audience was to do exercises that
you could do anywhere in the world
meaning you could be on a plane you
could be here at your desk you could do
Pilates you could do yoga these
stretches so I focused on that so
I would start with taking my supplement
and looking at who it best serves and
then crafting videos for the people who
are going to use it now what I would not
do at first is I would not talk about
its benefits and features so so what do
I mean by that I mean on let me use an
example the ipad when the ipad came out
that you know then some of the newest
versions Apple did an amazing remarkable
commercial that didn’t talk to you at
all about how to use the the ipad and
what it can actually do for you as far
as its storage and things like that they
showed the ipad being used in the most
creative settings sometimes i think they
even used some stock footage and then
other times they used you know original
footage so in doing that they’re showing
you and letting you feel it so we call
this experiential marketing when you’re
doing experiential marketing you are
bringing me the consumer into it so
you’re showing me what is this
supplement going to do for me um you can
tune into I have a youtube channel
called the plant-based diet you can
check out some of the stuff there I’ll
interview vegans vegetarians I’ll do
videos like this myself and it will
showcase how you can be part of this
community and what you can get from it
so that’s what I would do in building a
supplement brand and then I would
structure all of my Instagram posts and
photos I would take clips from the video
you can pull those actual clips from the
video if you want or you can shoot them
separately or you can do behind the
scenes people love behind the scenes and
you can source that but the main thing
you’re trying to do is get them to
experience the difference it’s going to
make so if you have somebody for example
i interviewed michael dorn if you guys
remember michael dorn from you know Star
Trek The Next Generation he’s a hoot and
I mean just I mean a total loved and I
was awesome and when I had him on he was
so spectacular because he just talked in
you know plain terms about hey I had
prostate cancer I went to the doctor and
the doctor said people who
need a mostly plant-based diet or an all
plant-based diet are usually a lot
healthier and when you shared that that
carried so much more weight than any you
know post or video that I could do that
would just go through in bullet points
or in plain terms like hey the
plant-based diet is good for you because
of XYZ right so it’s that experience he
brought into it and there again because
it was a video it was really emotional
because you know he’s a cool guy and we
could go back in time and look at what
he’s done and tell a little bit of
backstory and make it all relevant so
okay I answer that question I love it
yeah and we’re getting some some Worf
shoutouts yeah totally he’s awesome yeah
really I mean it’s crazy how quickly
half an hour goes I know we need to wrap
up there’s still a bunch of people have
questions for people to learn more about
you connect with you see what you’re up
to where were you hanging out where’s
the best place to get in touch okay so
um i would tell you just google my name
but I know that’s really hard to spell
so just remember think like a journalist
com that’s a hub I have several brands
like I’ve mentioned the plant-based diet
calm from that place you can find me all
over I’ve got videos and I’m all over
social media and I love love to do
hangouts and a chat with people so I
want to be a resource for you I love it
well thank you for the time thank you
guys so much for watching we’ll see you
again next week Phoebe I am on the other
side this time but not big you guys
continue to believe or whatever your one
word is and we’ll see you soon bye bye
think like a journalist
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